


Mama Liza

by Schuyler



Category: Bandom, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, Kid Gerard Way, Kid Mikey Way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-24
Updated: 2007-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-15 07:29:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/158484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schuyler/pseuds/Schuyler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liza cleans up her act and adopts two sweet little boys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mama Liza

**Author's Note:**

> For Toby, at Christmas. (All the good idea parts were her. I did the extra words.)

Gerard remembers the day he met her. Mikey was too little, but Gerard was already five. He was sitting on the red-orange carpet of Janet's office with the colored pencils he'd gotten from Santa and a coloring book. He was making a green horse. Then the door opened and there she was, red lips and wide eyes and short hair like his. He thought she was the most beautiful lady ever. She gasped and half crouched to hug him, and Gerard giggled and let her. She hugged Mikey too, and let him crawl into her lap, and then she helped Gerard finish his page. She didn't even care that his horse was green, and he already knew he liked her. Janet promised him that he and Mikey would get to go home with Liza, and Janet never promised anything.

*

Gerard Minnelli has the best dress-up box ever. The dresses have sequins, the hats are handmade, and the cape is by Halston. He doesn't really care. He just likes that on movie night (which is Wednesday), he and Mikey and Mama curl up on the sofa and watch one of the really old sparkly musicals, and then he and Mama make costumes out of the box and sing the songs again. Mikey is the best audience ever. He always claps and cheers.

Mama always said that he has the voice of an angel, and he thought she was just being nice, but when he was 10, she grabbed him up on stage at her Christmas Cabaret. Mikey played the tambourine and Gerard and Mama sang Silver Bells and Sleigh Ride. He loved it. It was tradition, then. She still does a song or two with him every year, and even when he gets to be all pudgy and awkward and doesn't go outside, he's still a bright, shining star on stage for that one night a year.

*

Mikey throws the biggest tantrum ever when Mama breaks up with Mikhail. Mikey's eight and he wants to be a ballet dancer when he grows up, and Mikhail would give him classes and take him to see the ballerinas rehearse and now Mama's ruined everything. Liza just sits on the couch, stunned and her eyes full of tears, and Gerard's old enough to understand that its not about them. They each have their own secret spaces. Gerard's is an art studio that used to be a little rooftop atrium. Mikey's is the old wine cellar. Gerard sits outside the cellar door and listens to Mikey sniffling, talking sometimes until Mikey lets him in and lets Gerard hug him.

*

Mikey quits ballet when he's 13 anyway. The other boys at school made merciless fun of him about it. He's heartbroken, but he feels like he has to, no matter what Mama and Gerard say. Mama will bemoan this for the rest of her life, telling people, "Michael was born to dance." Mikey gets quieter then, gets a little sullen. Things are never quite the same.

*

Mama is adamant about being the best mother she can be. She knows she's working against a huge set of odds, but she tries to make up for it by taking them to the theater and galleries as often as she can. She refuses to send them to boarding school, even when she has to tour. They get au pairs then, so that they can stay in their home. (By the time Liza realized that maybe a penthouse in West Midtown wasn't the best place to raise the boys, they had already made themselves at home.) She goes to PTA meetings and volunteers to bake for school events. She always makes cupcakes out of the box, and canned frosting, but the boys make mmm sounds and say she makes the best. She tries to cook on Movie Night, even though its really not her forte, and by the time Gerard's eight, he can order Chinese food.

*

When he's 15, Gerard starts taking the train down to St. Mark's Place after school to hang out. He's old enough that Mama will let him go to the library on his own and not want to come with him to help. He hangs out on the fringes, watches the skaters and tries to decipher their tattoos. At some point a year or two later, maybe that week in March where its warm enough to go out without a heavy coat, but the tourists haven't yet shown up, Gerard goes from being the guy who's trying to be wallpaper and failing to the guy who everyone says hi to, and still doesn't really talk. Right after that, he meets Frankie.

Or, well, he knew Frankie. They knew each other's names and stuff. But it's almost spring break when Frankie sits down next to him one afternoon and just starts talking. Frank still yells out to razz the guys who fall, but he stays sitting next to Gerard, talking to him about the city and why the PATH train sucks and arguing about the best falafel in the Village. Gerard thinks he's funny and smart and warm and gorgeous. He especially thinks Frankie's gorgeous.

*

When Gerard was 12, he'd come to Mama one Sunday and told her that he liked boys. A lot. He knew he was supposed to be having crushes on girls by now, but he only had a crush on Sean. Mama had gotten that big starry look in her eyes that meant she was tearing up, and hugged him as tight as she could. "I love you, I love you, my perfect little angel, and don't ever think that I wouldn't." He'd smiled and hugged her too, and then she read Metropolitan Diary to him.

The next day, he came home from school to find a present from Mama on his pillow, a size small t-shirt that said Friend of Dorothy on it. He wore it to paint until he was nearly 15.

*

Gerard asks Mama if he can bring Frank over for dinner, and she looks startled. She's heard a lot about this Frankie over the last year, and she's respected Gerard's decision not to let her meet him. She remembers what that was like. "Of course, baby!" she says, and Gerard goes back to his eggs.

He feels like he should warn Frankie somehow, qualify this. They're walking from the subway to Gerard's building, and what can he say? That his mom is an international star? That she spent $4.5 million on their apartment in 1980? Frankie would be pissed if Gerard tried to apologize for who he was, but he doesn't want Frank to hate him for this either.

In the end, he doesn't say anything. He just leads Frankie into the elevator, puts his key in the panel and pushes the button marked PH. Frank keeps chatting about maybe cutting his hair. He seems completely calm. She must have asked the doorman to buzz him when he came in, because she throws the door open and Gerard both smiles and cringes. He thinks his Mama looks fabulous, but it might be a bit much for this occassion. Frankie almost gets lost in her sleeves when she hugs him. "Frankie!" she says. "It is wonderful to meet you. My boys adore you, so you're my boy too. Come in, come in! Dinner's almost ready." Liza sweeps back to the kitchen and Frank ushers Gerard in and locks the door. The foyer has a gilt chandelier in it and the view goes all the way to Times Square. Gerard starts awkwardly leading Frank on a tour, including his bedroom and his studio. Frank pauses and looks at Gerard's work that's up on the walls. This makes Gerard even more nervous. "Booyyys!" Liza sing-songs, loud enough to be heard throughout the apartment, and that means dinner's ready. Frank comes up beside Gerard, as if to follow him out, and slips his hand into Gerard's. "Your mom's pretty cool," he says.

Gerard smiles, showing off all of his teeth. "She is." Frankie squeezes Gerard's hand and this feels like the beginning of the most awesome part of his life.

*

The first time Gerard kisses Frankie is in that studio, but that's a different story altogether.


End file.
